Thursday, 19 November 2015

Cadenhead’s October 2015 outturn

Cadenhead’s continues to roll out magnificent old casks, closed distillery gold and well judged long term finishes that must make most independent bottlers wonder how they do it. They don’t really seem to be even trying that hard! But it keeps coming. This is part one of the release, the second was just released yesterday, including a 26 year old Macallan and a 14 year old Springbank. The latter is full term matured in what was a full cask of New Zealand whisky shipped over and bottled by Cadenheads. They just filled up the old cask with Springbank juice. That’s why they don’t have to try very hard, they’ve just got so many resources!

I have the Kilkerran Calvados, recent Society Springbank and the just-gone batch of Springbank 15 for notes coming soon, once all these ridiculously massive posts about Xmas whisky are out of the way. They’re all amazing.

Anyway here’s some brief notes on the ones I have tried. Most of this is already out and much of it still in stock.

Littlemill 24 years old A⊕+

Nose - Beautifully fruity and floral, waxed fresh with old cask. Quite an Arran nose with a touch of funk and a touch of grain. Very good.

I find about 80% of the Ben Nevis I have I don’t like but the others are awesome. It’s a dirty, fruity style that takes very little to tip it over from fascinating and delicious to awful. At least, that’s what it’s like for me. This is one of the good ones.

Nose - Very complete… fresh fruit, deodorant, lots of mid-range and a very balanced wood and toffee character. Lovely complexity.